A NATION CHALLENGED: THE POLITICS

A NATION CHALLENGED: THE POLITICS; Rifts Imperil Quest for Federal Aid To Rebuild Downtown New York

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: December 3, 2001

New York City's fight to win $20 billion in emergency-reconstruction aid from Washington is being increasingly undercut by the change in administrations at City Hall and by the sudden escalation of the race for governor in New York, state and federal officials say.

The governor, mayor and mayor-elect have been distracted by events at home, just as New York's Congressional delegation is struggling to assure the immediate delivery of funds promised to rebuild the devastated financial district.

The lobbying campaign had already been weakened by infighting among the state's Congressional representatives and by rising resistance among national Republican leaders to New York's request for emergency help. But officials in Washington said yesterday that the transition and political turmoil in New York -- combined with the fact that Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mayor-elect Michael R. Bloomberg have so far failed to offer a united front on what New York wants and how it should get it -- had made a highly problematic task all the more difficult.

The fight for the money is taking place just as Mr. Giuliani is in the process of handing over control of City Hall to Mr. Bloomberg, and is considering what he will do with his own career once his term expires in four weeks.

Mr. Bloomberg, who was elected to public office for the first time a month ago, is now trying to rapidly assemble an entire government from scratch. And Mr. Pataki has found himself distracted by the demands of his own re-election campaign next year, with two potential Democratic rivals attacking him for his handling of the effort to win federal assistance for rebuilding New York.

In this uncertain environment, both Mr. Pataki and Mr. Giuliani have made moves that their aides said were intended to help New York's cause in Washington, but that many Washington officials said worked at cross-purposes to the New York delegation's struggle to nail down President Bush's promise of $20 billion in emergency-reconstruction aid and to win additional economic-stimulus measures.

Most strikingly, they said, Mr. Pataki submitted a $54 billion request for emergency federal aid that included funds for projects like a high-speed rail link to Schenectady that many members of Congress from outside New York dismissed as an attempt to profit from a tragedy. And two weeks ago, at the same time that the New York Congressional delegation and Mr. Bloomberg were pushing the administration to deliver the entire $20 billion promised by Mr. Bush, Mr. Giuliani defended the White House for seeking to delay the payment, and scolded fellow New Yorkers for not trusting Mr. Bush to deliver the promised assistance.

Since the request by Mr. Pataki and the statement by Mr. Giuliani, members of the Congressional delegation said, New York has encountered rising skepticism in Congress about how much money it needs and how soon it needs it, and several attempts by the New York delegation to win the allocation of the entire $20 billion have foundered. Even some of Mr. Bloomberg's supporters expressed distress at the actions by Mr. Pataki and Mr. Giuliani, though the mayor-elect himself has not publicly offered any criticism.

The efforts to secure aid for New York City come amid increased demands for federal financial help from businesses and agencies around the country after the terrorist attacks.

Officials in New York's overwhelmingly Democratic Congressional delegation also said that a coordinated lobbying attempt by the Republican mayor and Republican governor -- both of whom are popular in Washington and sympathetic figures in the wake of the attack -- could prove extraordinarily helpful right now, given the fact that Republicans control the White House and the House of Representatives.

But Mr. Giuliani, who has devoted all his energies since Sept. 11 to leading the city out of the crisis, has not been in Washington to lobby since the attack. Mr. Pataki has visited Washington twice in the 12 weeks since the attack.

Mr. Bloomberg visited Washington 10 days after his election, in the first of what he said would be monthly trips to the nation's capital. His appearance drew praise from Democratic and Republican officials. ''Bloomberg's visit here was very helpful; he said all the right things,'' said one New York Democratic Congressional aide.

Since then, though, Mr. Bloomberg has been consumed with putting together a new government and assembling a budget to deal with the most brutal fiscal environment New York has encountered in at least 25 years.

''I don't get the sense that there is any kind of coordinated effort here,'' said Felix G. Rohatyn, who was chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation and one of the business leaders who put together the plan that led New York City out of the fiscal crisis of the 1970's. Mr. Rohatyn warned that this fiscal crisis could prove worse than the last one, and expressed concern at the pace of things so far.

''You have this situation of an outgoing mayor and an incoming mayor,'' Mr. Rohatyn said. ''The governor hasn't, I don't believe, connected that closely with the incoming mayor to know what he wants, or to know what they jointly think they should be asking.''

Several officials said they hoped that situation would change once Mr. Bloomberg takes office. Still, this interregnum could prove to be remembered as an unwelcome turn of timing.

Memories of the jet attacks on the trade center towers are still fresh, and it could be a long while before New York enjoys as much political clout in Washington as it does now.